Software company Databricks has launched a data lakehouse platform geared toward healthcare and life sciences organizations.
The company develops a data lakehouse platform based on a technology that combines the capabilities of a data warehouse and a data lake. Lakehouse for Healthcare and Life Sciences is a platform that aims to eliminate antiquated legacy data structures by allowing organizations to view all patient data in one place and to draw real-time and predictive insights, according to the company. The latest iteration builds on the traditional Lakehouse platform with open-source solutions, some of which were co-developed by healthcare companies.
For instance, Regeneron helped develop and uses Glow, an open-source library for genomic analysis, Databricks told Fierce Healthcare. As the industry becomes increasingly digitized, it is "awash in massive amounts of data,” Michael Hartman, senior vice president of regulated industries at Databricks, said in the announcement. “But this data is siloed, and teams don’t have the tools to properly use it.” The latest Lakehouse platform can help drive innovation in the field and therefore drive better outcomes, he added.
The data lakes market was valued at $3.74 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $17.60 billion by 2026, according to Research and Markets.
The latest Lakehouse platform for healthcare consolidates data management, analytics and AI in one place with solutions ranging from disease prediction to medical image classification. Other solutions include real-world evidence mapping and natural language processing.
“By unifying our data in a single platform with a full suite of analytics and ML capabilities, we’ve diminished costly legacy data silos and equipped our teams with timely and accurate insights," Joji George, chief technology officer of LCS Digital at GE Healthcare, said in the announcement.
“This modern platform for data and AI has enabled us to eliminate costly data silos, unlock new opportunities to innovate and become a more data-driven organization,” said Feng Liang, senior IT director at Thermo Fisher Scientific, in a statement.
Walgreens, Regeneron and GE Healthcare were among the early adopters of various Lakehouse platforms.
“As the retail and healthcare industries continue to undergo transformative change, Walgreens has embraced a modern, collaborative data platform that provides a competitive edge to the business and, most importantly, equips our pharmacists and technicians with timely, accurate patient insights for better healthcare outcomes,” Luigi Guadagno, vice president of pharmacy and healthcare platform technology at Walgreens, said at the time in an announcement. “By eliminating complex and costly legacy data silos, we’ve enabled cross-domain collaboration with an intelligent, unified data platform that gives us the flexibility to adapt, scale and better serve our customers and patients.”